Bill Rainey, manager of Jefferson Lab’s Environment, Safety and Health Department, was one of 21 individuals recognized by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on September 15. He received a Secretary’s Achievement Award for his work on a committee charged with improving the effectiveness of the infrastructure that supports the Department of Energy’s critical missions across the nation.

NEWPORT NEWS, VA. – Bill Rainey, an employee of Jefferson Lab was recognized by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz in Washington, D.C., on September 15. Rainey received the Secretary’s Achievement Award for his work as part of a DOE committee to improve the effectiveness of the infrastructure that forms the foundation of the Department of Energy’s critical missions across the nation.

Rainey, manager of the Jefferson Lab Environment, Safety and Health Department was one of 21 members of a committee that spent several months in 2013-2014 establishing a plan to conduct a first-ever infrastructure assessment of all the national laboratories. “Bill Rainey was a key member of the team, which included DOE headquarters, site office and laboratory employees,” said Alison Markovitz, senior advisor to Secretary Moniz. “These efforts have helped to transform planning and investment in general purpose infrastructure across the DOE complex.”

Moniz requested a $29.9 billion budget for the Department of Energy for fiscal year 2016, an increase of $2.5 billion over 2015. In his testimony on the budget presented to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Energy and Power in February 2015, he made reference to the need for infrastructure investment.

“The department has been able to build a budget that better articulates what is in dire need, and what investments are mission critical,” Rainey said. “The Secretary said the information has been recognized by Congress as being valuable.” Moniz wrote that the infrastructure committee’s efforts resulted in “a fundamental shift in infrastructure planning and investment.”

Many people at Jefferson Lab helped in the effort, Rainey pointed out, including Rusty Sprouse, the Facilities Management director; and Mary Logue, the associate director of the Environment, Safety, Health and Quality Division. Rainey’s staff also played an important role because, as he put it, “my confidence in them to do their jobs well allowed me to commit time to this special project.”

Rainey said he was excited to receive the award on behalf of everyone who played a part. “I’m excited especially for a small lab like ours to be recognized,” Rainey said. “We get a lot of well-deserved attention for our science. It’s nice to be recognized for our operations as well.”

“The goal of the project was to provide the department with information that linked the condition and utilization of the infrastructure with the mission,” Rainey noted. “The information appears to have improved DOE’s ability to analyze the national laboratories’ infrastructure, understand infrastructure funding needs, prioritize the work, and improve efficiencies across the DOE laboratories.”

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Jefferson Science Associates, LLC, a joint venture of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. and PAE Applied Technologies, manages and operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, or Jefferson Lab, for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.